Artist Statement

My paintings explore an imaginary universe that is bright, playful, fun and fantastical. They feature feminine and androgynous figures, animals, and creatures mingling together in arcadian landscapes. The colors are saturated and often warm-hued, the brush marks are big and energetic, and the feelings are exuberant, mysterious, and a little dangerous. 

Several motifs recur throughout my work, such as cowboy boots, horses, snakes, cats, candles, and more. These motifs come alive in the world of the paintings, activating a childlike system of meaning.

Most works are large scale, in oil on canvas. However, I also make small scale works in oil on panel, and in watercolor and drawing mediums on paper. I always strive for an atmospheric space, with a glowing, misty luminosity. Often it is dominated by one color, which most recently has been a pink or yellow. 

The imagery hits an unabashedly feminine register, which is both an invitation and a dare. Candy colors and libidinal undercurrents seduce viewers into engaging with deeper and more challenging subjects, such as a femme-centered, frequently homoerotic, fantasy of desire with its own gaze and semiotics. The large scale works in particular have a confrontational quality with their monumental figures and bracingly bright colors. Their impact is visceral, and in pleasant tension with their deceptive, surface sweetness. 

At their core, all of the works emanate a heat or intensity, an urgency that is erotic. However, this sensuality is raw, shame-free and undomesticated. It is the sensuality of the act of creating, containing all of the pleasure and mystery of that practice.

My work is inspired by an eclectic mix of influences. Nineteenth century Japanese shunga prints, which were erotica that featured humor, storytelling, and surrealism, and were used widely for education and entertainment for centuries, have expanded my sense of what’s possible in expressing the erotic in art. I also draw on late-90s pop culture from my childhood, including Walt Disney’s Fantasia 2000 film, the Sailor Moon and Pokemon TV shows, I Spy books, and more. Art historically, I am drawn to the post impressionists and Fauves for their use of color and atmosphere, to Fragonard’s campy romance, Marie Laurencin’s feminine tableaus, and Velasquez’s soulful intellect. Films and TV that portray gender bending, such as Pedro Almodovar’s films, and the RuPaul’s Drag Race TV show, continue to be strong influences. In the contemporary art world, the paintings of Lisa Brice and Lisa Yuskavage which explore the relationship between sexuality and shame, and Rose Wylie who looks to childhood, are huge sources of inspiration, along with many others.

Bio

Grace Mattingly’s paintings are luminously bright and playful. Feminine and gender-neutral figures mingle with animals and creatures in a fantastical, atmospheric universe. Curvaceous landscapes are peppered with cowboy boots and heels, candles, and reptiles. The works exude a sunny warmth and intimacy, with their glowing, citrusy palette, that draws you closer, even whilst their scale is often life-size. Each mark is unrehearsed and dynamic, softly yet decisively applied in oil and watercolor mediums to slick surfaces on canvas, panel, and paper. The works reflect on themes of gender and sexuality, play and improvisation, and fantasy and the unconscious.

Grace Mattingly (b.1991, Chicago) is a London-based artist whose work has been shown internationally in solo and group exhibitions. 

Solo exhibitions include: Untitled Miami, Huxley Parlour Gallery, (Miami, US, 2022), Yellow Horses, Taymour Grahne (London, UK, 2022), and Secret Sunshines, (Arusha Gallery, Edinburgh, UK, 2021).

Group exhibitions include: Luminous Terrain, Atipografia, (Arzignano, IT, 2023), New Mythologies II, Huxley Parlour, (London, UK, 2022), Four Painters & A Photographer, Grove Berlin, (Berlin, DE, 2022), Intimacy, Taymour Grahne Projects, (London, UK, 2022), Internal Weather, Sid Motion Gallery, (London, UK, 2022), MAMA, Prior Art Space, (Berlin, DE, 2022), Coming In, Coming Out, Prior Art Space, (Berlin, DE, 2022), Dream On, Grove London, (London, UK, 2021), and A Chorus of Bodies, Liliya Gallery, (London, UK, 2021).

Mattingly has been featured in artist publications such as émergent magazine and Art Maze Mag and is a recipient of the Elizabeth Greenshields grant. She holds a BA in philosophy from Columbia University (2014) and an MA in painting from The Slade School of Fine Art (2021).